Last October, an ex-Conservative Cabinet Minister baselessly smeared an Ottawa Citizen journalist as a supposed KGB agent in a Parliament committee hearing. Despite that committee’s members later criticizing Alexander’s accusations, he was rewarded with a Senate committee appearance, on the same topic, with zero demands for accountability made by committee members.
Chris Alexander, a former federal Immigration Minister under the Stephen Harper government, known for his role in the dropped ‘Barbaric Cultural Practices tipline’, had been invited to testify during a meeting of Canadian Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security focused on supposed Russian disinformation and interference, held on October 24, 2024.
Speech in Canada’s Parliament is protected by Parliamentary Immunity. Using this immunity, Alexander stunningly claimed that Ottawa Citizen defence reporter David Pugliese was a long-time KGB agent. His source?
“photocopies of documents….[that] originated in the ‘pre-1991 archives of the Ukrainian KGB.’… and were in the hands of Canadian ‘national security officials’… [which] had been authenticated by ‘several of the world’s leading experts on KGB documents.’”
The problem? Even the Ukrainian archives, under a country that has spent the years since 2014 knocking down Soviet statues and persecuting communists, were unable to verify Alexander’s supposed bombshell files. This revelation was contained within a forensic review conducted by independent researcher Giuseppe Bianchin, which stated “these pages alleging David Pugliese's recruitment by the KGB are beyond reasonable doubt modern forgeries, crafted with deliberate intent to deceive.”
But what work has Pugliese done that ruffled Alexander’s feathers? He exposed the Freeland family secret, of former Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland’s grandfather being a Nazi collaborator, reported on “Ukraine's Nazi links or Nazis in Canada” and had “provocative takes on procurement and other issues at the Department of National Defence and in the Canadian Forces”, among other topics. (more...)
Ex-Cabinet Minister smeared journalist in Parliament, rewarded with Senate committee appearance
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